"The actions of your ancestors are the reason for our actions today."

The Islamic State document said that since the establishment of the Spanish Inquisition in 1478, Spain "has done everything to destroy the Koran." It said that Spain tortured Muslims, including burning them alive. Therefore, according to the Islamic State, "Spain is a criminal state that usurps our land." The document calls on jihadists to "reconnoiter airline and train routes for attacks." It also calls on followers to "poison food and water" with insecticides.

"We will kill any 'innocent' Spanish infidel we find in Muslim lands, and... whether we are European in origin or not, we will kill you in your cities and towns according to our plan." — Islamic State document, May 30, 2016.

"We will recover al-Andalus, Allah willing. Oh dear Andalus! You thought we forgot about you. I swear by Allah we have never forgotten you. No Muslim can forget Córdoba, Toledo or Xàtiva. There are many faithful and sincere Muslims who swear they will return to al-Andalus." — Islamic State video, January 31, 2016.

"Spain is the land of our forefathers and we are going to take it back with the power of Allah." — Islamic State video, January 7, 2016.

Islamic militants are stepping up a propaganda war against Spain. In recent months, Islamic State and other jihadist groups have produced a flurry of videos and documents calling on Muslims to reconquer al-Andalus.

Al-Andalus is the Arabic name given to those parts of Spain, Portugal and France occupied by Muslim conquerors (also known as the Moors) from 711 to 1492. Many Muslims believe that territories Muslims lost during the Christian Reconquest of Spain still belong to the realm of Islam. They claim that Islamic law gives them the right to re-establish Muslim rule there.

A recent Islamic State document includes a list of grievances against Spain for wrongs done to Muslims since the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa on July 16, 1212, when the Christian forces of King Alfonso VIII of Castile routed the Almohad Muslim rulers of the southern half of the Iberian Peninsula. More than 100,000 Muslims were killed in the battle, which was a key victory in the Catholic Monarchs' "Reconquista" of Spain.

The document said that since the establishment of the Spanish Inquisition in 1478, Spain "has done everything to destroy the Koran." It said that Spain tortured Muslims, including burning them alive. Therefore, according to the Islamic State, "Spain is a criminal state that usurps our land." The document calls on jihadists to "reconnoiter airline and train routes for attacks." It also calls on followers to "poison food and water" with insecticides.

The document concludes: "The actions of your ancestors are the reason for our actions today."

On July 15, 2016, Islamic State released its first propaganda video with Spanish subtitles. The high quality of the Spanish translation, both in writing and in syntax, led some analysts to conclude that that the translator's mother tongue is Spanish and that the subtitling may even have been done inside Spain.

On June 3, Islamic State released a video — "Month of Ramadan, Month of Conquest" — which mentions al-Andalus four times. Spain is the only non-Muslim country mentioned in the video.

On May 30, Islamic State released a two-page document in Spanish in which it issued threats directly against Spain. The document states:

"We will kill any 'innocent' Spanish infidel we find in Muslim lands, and if not we will reach your land. Our religion and our faith lives among you, and even though you do not know our names or what we look like and do not even know whether we are European in origin or not, we will kill you in your cities and towns according to our plan, in the same way that you are killing our families."

On January 31, Islamic State released a video in which one of its Spanish jihadists warned Spain that it would "pay a very heavy price" for expelling Muslims from al-Andalus. The eight-minute video included the following statement:

"I swear by Allah that you will pay a very heavy price and your demise will be very painful. We will recover al-Andalus, Allah willing. Oh dear Andalus! You thought we forgot about you. I swear by Allah we have never forgotten you. No Muslim can forget Córdoba, Toledo or Xàtiva. There are many faithful and sincere Muslims who swear they will return to al-Andalus."

An armed, masked Islamic State jihadist appears in a propaganda video, where he warns Spain that it would "pay a very heavy price" for expelling Muslims from al-Andalus hundreds of years ago. The Spanish subtitle above reads "Oh dear Andalus! You thought we forgot about you. I swear by Allah we have never forgotten you. No Muslim can forget Córdoba, Toledo or Xàtiva."

On January 7, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which is fighting Islamic State for hegemony of North Africa, released a video calling for jihadist attacks in Madrid as a strategy to help Muslims recover the Spanish North African exclaves of Ceuta and Melilla.

Another Islamic State video vowed to liberate al-Andalus from non-Muslims. A jihadist speaking in Spanish with a heavy North African accent said:

"I say to the entire world as a warning: We are living under the Islamic flag, the Islamic caliphate. We will die for it until we liberate those occupied lands, from Jakarta to Andalusia. And I declare: Spain is the land of our forefathers and we are going to take it back with the power of Allah."

Meanwhile, 33 jihadists were arrested in Spain in 17 different raids during the first nine months of 2016, according to the Spanish Interior Ministry.

Most recently, two Spanish citizens of Moroccan origin — Karim El Idrissi Soussi, 27, and a second man identified as 18-year-old O.S.A.A — were arrested in Madrid on jihad terror charges. One of the detainees is a 27-year-old computer science student who watched jihadist propaganda videos in class and threatened to massacre his fellow students.

According to the Interior Ministry, Soussi tried to join the Islamic State but was detained by Turkish authorities while attempting to cross the border into Syria. He was deported and just recently returned to Spain.

The Interior Ministry said Soussi's penchant for radical Islam became evident in November 2015, when the technical training center where he was studying computer science held a moment of silence to honor the victims of the jihadist attacks in Paris. According to teachers and students, Soussi shouted slogans in support of the attacks which killed 130 people, including 89 at the Bataclan Theater.

On other occasions, Soussi publicly justified jihadist attacks by Islamic State, which he said was the ideal form of government for all Muslims. According to the Interior Ministry, Soussi visited a public library almost daily to connect to the internet and browse jihadist websites. He allegedly created fake profiles and posted jihadist material on social media sites. Soussi also criticized so-called moderate Muslims and expressed hope that someday Spain would become an Islamic emirate.

Soussi allegedly watched Islamic State propaganda videos during his computer science class and repeatedly threatened to bring weapons to school to kill his classmates.

The other jihadist, O.S.A.A., was arrested for the offenses of "glorifying jihadist terrorism" and "self-indoctrination for terrorist purposes." The Interior Ministry did not provide further details.

A total of 636 jihadists have been detained in the country since the March 2004 Madrid train bombings, in which nearly 200 people were killed and more than 2,000 injured.

A recent study by the Madrid-based Elcano Institute found that of the 150 jihadists arrested in Spain during the past four years, 124 (81.6%) were linked to Islamic State and 26 (18.4%) to al-Qaeda.

Of those linked to Islamic State, 45.3% were Spanish citizens, 41.1% were Moroccans and 13.6% had other nationalities. In terms of birth, 45.6% were born in Morocco and 39.1% were born in Spain. Only 15.3% were born in other countries.

In terms of immigration, 51.7% were first-generation immigrants, 42.2% were second- or third-generation immigrants, and 6.1% had no immigration background, which implies they are Spanish converts to Islam.

In terms of residency, 29.8% were arrested in Barcelona, 22.1% in Spain's North African exclave of Ceuta, and 15.3% in Madrid. The others were arrested in more than a dozen other localities across the country.

Islamic State has suffered setbacks on the battlefields of the Middle East, but the jihadist terror threat remains undiminished. In the words of Spanish terrorism analyst Florentino Portero: "Islamic State is answering military defeats with more terror."

Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-basedGatestone Institute. He is also Senior Fellow for European Politics at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group. Follow him onFacebook and onTwitter.

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23 Reader Comments

Geoff • Sep 27, 2016 at 19:03

I am always amazed that Muslims have this fascination in rewriting history...revisionist history. Spain was a Christian country hundreds of years before Muslims invaded...yes invaded...just like the Middle East...ignorance for Muslims seems to be part of their ethos.They join the great dictatorships that rewrite history, the Nazis, Mao, Stalin etc

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Richard Geoff • Sep 27, 2016 at 22:31

These ISIS fanatics are so dumb that they have the audacity to bring up the Inquisition and claim that some Muslims were actually burnt alive when they themselves carry out the most horrific acts of barbarism against those that they consider infidels or apostates. There was no justification for the Inquisition. It was a disgusting period of man's inhumanity to man, but now you have an evil cult that wants to go back some six hundred years to justify their war on the Spanish people. The sooner these mentally challenged sociopaths are eliminated, the better.

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Sir Algernon • Sep 27, 2016 at 18:17

Ok, statement of the obvious but perhaps Muslims need to be confronted with historical facts now and again. Prior to the Muslim invasion, the Iberian Peninsula was Christian. Prior to the birth of Mohamed, Arabia was pagan (gasp!). Believe it or believe it not, Islam originated in the 7th century and therefore no land was ever "originally" Islamic. Any land other than Arabia, and even that is debatable, that Islam claims as once and always Islamic is a land that has been invaded in one way or another. These historical facts may be unpalatable to Muslims and western liberals but they do not therefore cease to be facts.

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Stephen • Sep 27, 2016 at 15:45

Merkel is reversing her position on immigration to keep her party in power. The Muslim migrants are overwhelming Germany and the right wing party is gaining power. Italians are seriously questioning whether to remain part of the EU. ISIS boasts it will own Europe. Austria is reeling from the cost of social subsidies required for new Muslim migrants. Hungary seems to be one of the few European states to acknowledge that their culture and lifestyle are important to them and they want to keep it that way. More power to Hungary! I would feel comfortable visiting Hungary, Czechoslovakia, or Poland, but not France or Germany. Now Spain is being targeted. We have been to France and Germany and Spain, and they were wonderful . . . 20 years ago, but we are not visiting them now.

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Mark Anderson • Sep 27, 2016 at 14:27

Very Informative Article.

Please keep them coming.

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Red • Sep 27, 2016 at 13:39

Osama gave the reason of "historical differences" as the driving force of the Madrid train bombings. The delusion brought about by the infidel's appeasing mentality believes that Israel's control of the "occupied territories" is the stumbling block on the road to peace.

Israel is Step One in the creation of an Islamic caliphate and a world dominated by Sharia Law. Spain is Step Two. Portugal is Step Three. The ancestors of the Spanish and Portuguese spoke the only language that the Islamic invaders understood. This ancient language must be revived if the civilized world is to survive.

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Ronald Wasserman • Sep 27, 2016 at 11:48

These Jihadists targeting, Spain and Spaniards, are the most to the core evilplayers on the world stage today. Seeking revenge for deeds done against Muslimsfive centuries ago? Worse crimes were committed against Jews, including an attemptat total extermination were committed; all within living memory. But never wasthere any organized call by Jews to enact violence against innocent Germans orAustrians. Of course, Jews and Israelis are at the top of their kill list as well.The only answer to this is military.

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Michael • Sep 27, 2016 at 11:36

Let me say, as a Christian, that I am not sorry for what the Inquisition did to the Muslim idolaters and blasphemers. On the contrary, I am proud of it for delivering God's retribution to these infidels.

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RobertF • Sep 27, 2016 at 10:38

This is very ironic, in view of the fact that a lot of Spaniards have been supporting BDS.

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Paul Ashley • Sep 27, 2016 at 10:06

"No Muslim can forget Córdoba, Toledo or Xàtiva."

Most of the illiterate Muslims in the world don't know what ISIS is talking about!

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deborah Paul Ashley • Jun 8, 2017 at 08:55

How can they never forget places they have never visited?

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Jilli Roberts • Sep 27, 2016 at 10:04

Thank you for the reminder that Islam ruled Spain (etc.) for 800 years. That is twice as long as the Romans occupied Britain. You have to look really hard to find the true history of Islamic occupation in Europe.

Why was it all whitewashed in the history books? : Ottoman empire, Moors, marvellous architecture, water gardens. I feel quite ill when these 'marvellous' documentaries come on about what glories the 'Moors' left in Spain. Islam invaded with the sword and they complain about the "brutality" used to push them out of European lands. Tough.

We must not forget, likewise, its push from the east directly to Vienna and other invasions of Europe, after decimating the Christian lands of the Levant, Egypt and North Africa, and the Mediterranean islands. And it continues to this day pushing into central Africa and repeating an attempt to colonise Europe by stealth.

I care not for nationality or colour, but Islam is dangerous and always has been. We were fools to forget.

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TH • Sep 27, 2016 at 10:03

The Catalan nationalists, who pretend they want independence from Spain, but in reality, it is simply impossible and a utopia, are doing their best to get more Muslims into Barcelona in order to increase their electoral base. Of course, they don't realize that they are shooting themselves in the foot.

In my estimation, if a Muslim from a Western country goes or attempts to go to fight jihad in Syria or anywhere else, he should be deprived of his passport and never let back to the country. This is plain common sense, as they are traitors and ought to be treated as such. How much does the taxpayer have to fork out for police and judicial work as well as the cost of keeping them in prison? Simply, they ought to get what they deserve, be deprived of citizenship, s that can go hack to their Islami hellholes.

Another obvious thing is to deprive them of their propaganda base in Internet by forcing Facebook, Google and the rest of the companies to delete their entries. It is too much to expect the present political and media elite to protect the citizenry which they have sworn to protect. They are accomplices of the jihadit terrorism and they ought to be held accountable for that.

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Newsel • Sep 27, 2016 at 08:27

Published in 1988 and well before ISIS. ISIS are just regurgitating what has been Fundamentalist Islam policy for quite some time. Anyone out there listening?

Article 7: Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement

"This is the law governing the land of Palestine in the Islamic Sharia (law) and the same goes for any land the Moslems have conquered by force, because during the times of (Islamic) conquests, the Moslems consecrated these lands to Moslem generations till the Day of Judgement."

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George Parker • Sep 27, 2016 at 08:21

Let's hope they are serious about this and show themselves for a fight. The Western civilised nations should be baiting these barbarians, causing them to reveal their positions. As things stand we wait, they act and we react. Gifting the initiative to the enemy is definitely not the way to win the war. Make no mistake, they have declared war on us and we should take it more seriously.

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Kyra • Sep 27, 2016 at 07:56

I wonder if they all still have their house keys. Like the "Palestinians."

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Mike Ramirez • Sep 27, 2016 at 07:54

Muslims have never had a privileged right to Spain. Mecca, Saudi Arabia is the "land" of their forefathers and it is from there that Islam spread by the sword to Spain, France, Portugal and countries beyond. The Moors did exactly what modern-day jihadists are doing this day by conquering nations through hijra (mass migration) terror, forced conversions and killing of apostate Muslims. Persecutions, rapes, murders, burnings, decapitations, etc. have been the norm for the methods of how Muhammad's armies gained control of nations and societies that were caught defenseless and unable to repel the onslaught of the Islamic invasions. Spain took her only action for survival by doing the same to the Moors as what Muhammad did to those who would not accept him as the "last and final prophet of God". Spain's reactions, however, were one of over-compensation in not just dealing with the Moors for the Islamic invasion but also then turning against Orthodox and Messianic Jews and citizens of other faiths who would not convert to Roman Catholicism and accept papal authority. Thus, the Spanish Inquisitions - but that too is another story.

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richard sherwin • Sep 27, 2016 at 07:50

The story goes when the last Moorish king of Granada was overlooking the Alhambra he started weeping. His mother said if you weren't a man enough to keep it, be man enough to hold your tears. Now a mosque overlooks Granada and Moslems are on their way back, infiltrating bit by bit. So the reconquest of Europe is on. El Cid's long dead with no replacements. Both Roland and Olivier along with Charlemagne are equally unreplaced. And while the churches are full of women they say, the men have gone elsewhere. Unfortunately this isn't a computer game to be played by quick young thumbs or those without history about to learn it from Islam.

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william knutsen • Sep 27, 2016 at 07:34

Well, terrorist Muslim groups like ISIS are getting mauled -by other Muslims- so are hardly in a position to "recover" Spain! And is it not humourous how they think their invasion of Spain was ok, but not the Spaniards kicking them out? What delusions these fools carry in their heads.

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Albert Reingewirtz • Sep 27, 2016 at 07:23

Rule in Islam: Any land once ruled by Islam must in time return to be ruled by Islam. No other reason is needed for the invention of "The Palestinian nation." Next are Sicily and of course the big prize Andalus, Spain. They now added part of France? As I see it they can have all of it as it is an anti- Semitic state historically. Why are Jews still in France? Strange isn't it?

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Jeff Page • Sep 27, 2016 at 06:27

It really does take some time for the political classes to catch on doesn't it? They are full of the joys of spring and good intentions when offering places to Muslim "refugees" but sadly lacking in common sense when it comes to their realisation that these people just will not integrate into society. Then, like most politicians around the world, they look for reasons as to why this integration is not happening. Lo and behold! It's not the newcomers fault, it's the fault of the society in that particular country that is to blame! Apparently, according to the countries leaders and EU officialdom, we, as people in Europe, have to do more to adapt to them! All the atrocities carried out by these interlopers are because they don't understand our culture and values, (Apparently) so for the time being until the governments can make them understand, teach them our languages, etc etc, then we have to put up with the rapes and attacks carried out by these people on our citizens. Making sense so far?The worst of what is happening to citizens never makes it to local or national news, because the authorities want all crimes carried out by these people kept under wraps. After all if too much gets out into the public domain then their ill thought out plans for the future will be seen as a complete failure. We are all fully aware that it's already a complete failure!But little things such as the rape of women and children means nothing to people such as Frau Merkel, she sees it as a slight hiccup, and those that have suffered attacks of a sexual aswell as a violent nature will soon get over it!Come on, think about it! Merkel! Even a blind drunk jihadist wouldn't want to go anywhere close to sexually assaulting her! The authorities right across Europe have got to begin to realise the mistakes they've made over decades and start the fight back. Don't allow the Muslims any more freedom, don't allow any more Mosques, and tell them to stuff any more demands for preferential treatment! Do something now or suffer the consequences for centuries to come.

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Andy Paul • Sep 27, 2016 at 05:55

So, Muslims claim that Al-Andalus is the land of their "forefathers"? I appreciate that the Koran allows them to tie themselves into intellectual knots to justify their actions but there is no way that a land they, Muslims, occupied, can be described as the land of their "forefathers."

Spain liberated itself from Muslim rule and that should be celebrated by Spain and emphasized by the Spanish....

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Brian • Sep 27, 2016 at 05:41

Its written in the Koran, that once a land is conquered for islam it will always be "an Islamic Land". Verse 013:041. "See they not that We gradually reduce the land (in their control) from its outlying borders? (Where) God commands, there is none to put back His Command: and He is swift in calling to account."

So fundamentalists will never give up on retaking Al Andalus. Al qaeda issued claims to retake Spain too, in their glory days. And that's why they will never give up on retaking Israel too. Once a land becomes Muslim, it must always be Muslim.

Dr. Shakil Afridi, a Pakistani physician who helped the U.S. locate Osama bin Laden, has been in jail in Pakistan since he was arrested days after the raid on bin Laden's compound in 2011. In 2013, he was granted a retrial, with a new charge that appears politically motivated: charged with murder in regard to the death, eight years earlier, of a patient he had treated. Afridi has gone on a hunger strike protest his unspeakable prison conditions -- including torture. His former lawyer, Samiullah Khan Afridi, was murdered by the Taliban in March 2015. The Obama Administration appears to have abandoned him.